Monday, August 4, 2014

Porn

Well. That was certainly disgusting. I wasn't really expecting what I saw on television that night. Maybe that's why it made such an impact on me. It made such an impression in fact that it moved me to do something I rarely, if ever, do.

My wife and I were sitting in the living room Thursday night eating our dinner. The TV was on. My wife likes to watch the evening news. I like to eat her cooking. Seemed like a perfect time for both of us. Appearances can be deceiving.

If was about 6:00. Like I said, we were watching the evening news. Truth be told, I was probably more focused on my plate than I was on anything else. I randomly looked up at the television after taking a bite of food and saw a scantily-clad woman, "dressed" in a black leather thong, thrusting and rubbing herself rather sexually on a car.

"Umm, what are we watching?" I asked my wife.

"Oh, that's a Hardee's commercial," she replied, indicating by her words that she had seen it before.

Sure enough. The woman was now taking a rather large bite out of a big, juicy, dripping burger.

"Seriously?"

Suddenly another woman appeared on the scene. Paris Hilton I think. She told the other woman that she had "missed some" and she then proceeded to lick some cheese off the car's hood.

"Are you sure this is an ad? I thought most people pay for this stuff."

It was incredibly pornographic in my opinion. It was SO pornographic that it prompted me to take some action. I e-mailed both Hardee's and the local news channel, who somewhere, somehow came to the conclusion that this was somehow appropriate for family viewing during the dinner hour, and I let them have it - in a wonderfully Christian way, of course.

I simply told them that they should let me know when they pull the explicit ad so I could resume watching their network / eating their food. It's been four days now. No response.

This past Saturday, I went for one of my long walks in the woods. As I walked I listened to several books from the audio Bible I carry on my iPod. One of them was to Book of Ephesians. Hearing God's words reminded me of a few things.

If you have your Bible handy, please open it to the second chapter. Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus - a political, educational and cultural center. It could very well be that the influence of the culture on that local church caused it to stray from the early teachings of Priscilla and Aquila. Let's see what Paul says. We read.

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." - Ephesians 2:1-3

The things I take out of this text are these:

We were, or are, all living a sinful lifestyle at some point in our lives but we were called out of that lifestyle through our faith in Jesus Christ (verse 1).

Satan - "the prince of the power of the air" - is at work in us and in the world we live in (verse 2).

We used to live in the passions of our flesh. "If it feels good, do it!" Maybe we STILL do (verse 3).

We were no different than anyone else on this sinful planet. Destined to suffer the wrath of God, just like everyone else (verse 3).

There was a time when I would have gladly watched that Hardee's commercial . . . without my wife in the room of course. I would have allowed my mind to wander off in whatever direction it wanted to go, as long as it pleased me.

So what has changed? Why am I now different than the rest of the world? Why has a commercial like that suddenly become so repulsive? What happened? I was so happy, or so I thought, in the lifestyle I was living. What changed? Let's continue our reading.

"4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." - Ephesians 2:4-9

As I read those words of Paul's and then I also recall his words to the Romans about how we are no longer to conform to the pattern of this world (Romans 12:2) I feel convicted. Why? Because I know that I have not totally left "this world" behind. I still have one foot firmly planted in it, in sin. We ALL do!

So what do we do about it? How do we get rid of some of the sin in our lives? Ask yourself this question, as I did a few weeks ago. What is something I am doing right now that I could give up and replace with reading the Bible, or volunteering to serve others someplace? What could I do, right this very minute, that would honor God above all the other thing I am doing?

Could I turn of the computer a little earlier? The same for the television. Could I chose not to watch TV shows (or commercials) that do not honor the God we serve? Of course! Movies in theaters. How many went to see Noah or Heavens For Real instead of learning more about God? There was little biblical truth in either of those movies yet thousands flocked to see them.

We must think through everything we are about to do and ask ourselves this question. Will this honor God? If no, we should reconsider what we are about to do. If yes, the by all means proceed. We serve a great God, not some two-bit fallen angle on an ego trip. Stand tall, in the name of Jesus, and flee from Satan. God will be glad you did. It is His will that we are to follow, not ours. Celebrate your God-honoring decisions and choices. You are growing closer to God when you make them. And that's a GOOD thing! :)

I totally agree. I have major issues when it comes to porn. Porn complicates everyones view of what sex is actually like. Sex is awkward and full of silly sounds and youre not really sure what youre doing half the time. You just know the whole reason youre doing it is because you love the other person and want to share yourself with them physically. I also disagree with porn because it extremely over sexualizes women. Porn is the reason women get looked down upon in society for not having shaven legs or not having shaven privates. Why does it matter? God gave us hair there for a reason! Why do we need to get rid of it to please society and most men? And plus porn is relationship ruining for some. If i caught my boyfriend watching it i would break up with him. I have absolutely no tolerance for it. I am his girl and i feel that i am fair when it comes to what we do privately. There is no excuse for him to be watching other women when he could be doing almost the same thing with me. When i do things with him its because he is special to me. When women do it in porn it is not special whatsoever. Theyre only doing it to get paid. Porn is just absolutely disgusting. I have trouble watching tv most of the time because i cant handle seeing victorias secret commercials or like you mentioned, hardees commercials. When i want to see a new movie i havent seen yet, a lot of times i find myself looking on the imdb parents guide because i do not want to see other naked women. Whatever happened to purity?But i think one of my biggest beefs with this whole "is porn good or bad debate" is when people say that viewing porn is natural for men and women. No it is not. Porn was released into american homes in 2000 or 2001 (not sure which). Yes there were magazines before then but what about BEFORE those? There was nothing! Why cant we go back to those times and stop sexualizing women in the media and stop porn completely??!

I did hear back from Hardee’s after I complained about their commercial. They told me their desire in their commercials is “to entertain.” I wonder who within their company considers “porn” entertaining?

Alright there are so many issues with your comment "Anonymous", but I'll go through them one by one to clarify some concerns I see with your very skewed viewpoints.

First, " Porn complicates everyones view of what sex". Coming from a person who doesn't view porn I don't think you have much to talk about here. In the same way not every Christian is rightful and pure, not every porn user is corrupt. Many just do it to relieve stress and to pleasure themselves. The last time I checked, doing what feels good isn't usually a problem. And while some porn users are probably negatively affected by the porn they use, I believe many of these people already have negative views of sex rather than the other way around.

"I also disagree with porn because it extremely over sexualizes women." There are so many kinds of porn that saying this is kind of a joke. There is a thing called gay porn. Not to mention the many types of porn that actually show real couples in love having sex. Because for many that is more of a turn on than rough sex (myself included). And you are right that some porn does "sexualize" woman. But to be fair that is often the point. To see sex, but most people with brains can separate porn from real life. And yes you can argue that subconsciously it still affects people. But I think we must blame the people before we blame the porn. After all porn only exists because of demand. And there is a lot of demand. I think people should be better taught about the realities of sex and the difference from porn. But porn isn't the main reason why society is sexist. (Christianity has been guilty of being sexist far longer if you look at the catholic church).

"Porn is the reason women get looked down upon in society for not having shaven legs or not having shaven privates". 65% of woman don't shave their privates, so that's the majority. As for the legs, that started before porn so you have no argument there. That's called a fashion trend, I don't agree with it personally, but once again porn isn't to blame.

"And plus porn is relationship ruining for some. If i caught my boyfriend watching it i would break up with him. " THAT IS YOUR CHOICE. You don't have to end anything with him. And by the way most men watch porn so I wouldn't hold your breath. But that doesn't make him a bad person!!!!! He can still love, respect, and understand you and watch porn. If he did watch porn (not saying he does), maybe he just wants the bodily satisfaction and not the love, and shares that solely with you. There are many reasons to watch porn (for one google benefits of masturbation). And if you don't have equal sex drives (which is a very common problem with couples) it is a great way to even the balance. Just because you are satisfied sexually does not mean he is. Don't be selfish.

"When women do it in porn it is not special whatsoever. Theyre only doing it to get paid." And some people need money that way. So what? Men do it too. As I mentioned earlier there is a ton of porn that focuses on love. And the people that look for rough and rather unfair sex (such as male dominance) are the ones that already have that viewpoint.

"Whatever happened to purity?" Sex is everything. Sex is why you exist (god or no god), sex is culture, sex is society, and sex is life. Your idea of "pure" denies the beauty of Earth and what amazing things take place on it. Sex is a wonder that should be enjoyed, celebrated, and loved (mutually of course). It is gross, weird, awkward, great, inspiring, and is pure in its own sense. You choose to see it the way you do, but then I think you are missing out. Plus being naked is awesome, so I'm waiting till the day we can all go back to being less hidden and more open about our bodies again. And our bodies are not the devils playground. Your body is yours to use and I say make the best of it and do what feels good so long as it doesn't harm others.

"Porn was released into american homes in 2000 or 2001 (not sure which). Yes there were magazines before then but what about BEFORE those? There was nothing! " Haha! That is so funny that I did laugh. Sex has been huge since......the dawn of mankind. Try paintings, books, art, drawings, and general culture from the last couple 1000 years and you will see porn is nothing new. Sex is a huge part of society for many reasons, and it has never been well hidden. Try googling the "Kama Sutra", from 300 BCE!

I hope I have shed some light on the situation of porn for you. While some of it has gone to far, it is the people that try to find the worse forms of porn that create the problem in the first place. Why does our society do this? I can't give a full answer on that at this point, but it is nothing new. And if people could look up sex on some machine 10,000 years ago, they would have. Sex has always been an amazing and a huge part of life on earth, so the existence of porn does not come as a shock to me.

I do believe people should be better educated on the realities of porn though. And what the feelings of sex mean, but porn is only one part of our society. And it exists because we let it. So fix society and either porn will go away (spoiler alert: not happening), or it will simply let it be another way to express oneself and view the natural wonder that is sex.

Sorry for all the rambling, please reply because I think we can both benefit from the different viewpoints. After all, communication is amazing. And sorry if I was offensive, I really just want you to understand that not all porn is evil, and that if anything some people are.